Judging by the way Gianluigi Donnarumma and his teammates celebrated Rayan Cherki’s sweet late winner at Nottingham Forest, this was a significant victory for Manchester City. Donnarumma hurtled 40 yards towards the away technical area where Pep Guardiola was mobbed by his coaching staff, including Pep Lijnders and the set-piece coach James French, the architect behind Phil Foden’s corner that led to the goal that extended their winning run to eight matches. Then for a moment of calm, Cherki mimicked Erling Haaland’s meditation pose on the City Ground turf.
It is now six wins in a row in the Premier League, the kind of ominous run they had not stitched together since winning their final nine matches of 2023-24. Everyone knows how that finished, City pipping Arsenal to the title by two points. This was anything but a straightforward victory, the City centre-backs Rúben Dias and Josko Gvardiol unusually ruffled by the Forest striker Igor Jesus; Dias was fortunate to finish an entertaining match with only a caution and Gvardiol got off the hook altogether.
Sean Dyche, the Forest manager, was adamant Morgan Gibbs-White was impeded in the buildup to Cherki’s winner, a first-time strike that whistled through the legs of the Forest captain and low into the corner of past John Victor. Gibbs-White went to ground after colliding with Nico O’Reilly before an unmarked Gvardiol cushioned a header into the path of Cherki who, just inside Forest’s penalty area, struck to maintain his sparkling form. Dyche felt the officials should have intervened: “It was such an easy game to referee, in my opinion, such an easy decision for VAR.”
Cherki earlier registered his seventh assist of the season after slipping Tijjani Reijnders in for City’s opener two and a half minutes into the second half, collecting Gvardiol’s pass on the half-turn and freeing Reijnders to do the rest. “Always when we sign a player we expect the best, it’s true, but in reality he made an incredible assist and the winning goal,” Guardiola said. “From day one with Rayan, there are moments I want to shout at him and moments I want to kiss him. I have that ambivalent feeling with him, but I have to allow him to express his incredible talent.”
For Forest, emotions had been heightened following the news of John Robertson’s passing at the age of 72. There were floral tributes on the gates of the City Ground, Forest players and staff wore black armbands and, pre-match, there was a minute’s applause and a moving montage on the big screens. “Robbo is bionic,” read a scarf held aloft by one home supporter. A banner in the Bridgford Stand, to be renamed in Robertson’s honour, carried that famous old line from Brian Clough. “Give him a yard of grass and he was an artist,” it read. “The Picasso of our game.”
Quickly an entertaining game centred on Igor Jesus’s tussle with the City centre-backs. From kick-off the Brazil striker charged into Dias, as if to advise of the kind of afternoon ahead. Gvardiol was eventually penalised by the referee, Robert Jones, for tugging at Igor Jesus’s shirt on halfway. Less than a minute into the second half Dias crossed paths with the striker again, but escaped further punishment. Up the other end Haaland was shackled, his greatest contribution dummying an overcooked Elliot Anderson pass. “Haaland, Haaland!” crooned the visiting supporters.
Forest passed up the first big opening, Igor Jesus and Gibbs-White both trying and failing to convert a Callum Hudson-Odoi cross after galloping, almost in tandem, towards the City six-yard box. Forest were disciplined and afforded City little room to manoeuvre. Neither side mustered an effort on target in the first half. But then Cherki released Reijnders with a killer pass behind Nikola Milenkovic. Guardiola pointed at Lijnders, high-fiving and then hugging his assistant, and the relief at breaking Forest’s stubborn resistance was palpable. “We know a lot of clubs suffer here,” Reijnders said. “It’s a very important win and we are on the hunt.”
Reijnders’s strike seemed to provide City the warmth of a Christmas blanket and, on the run, Cherki sent an effort at goal that Victor forced on to his left post and out for a corner. Then Forest found an equaliser, Omari Hutchinson, a £37.5m arrival from Ipswich in the summer, scoring his first goal for the club. Gibbs-White drifted into the left channel and picked out Igor Jesus, who wedged a superb cross towards the edge of the box, where Hutchinson applied the finish.
City would not freewheel to another victory – they had scored at least three goals in each of their previous five league wins – but another magical moment courtesy of Cherki maintained their winning run.
This time Guardiola gravitated towards French, who, like Lijnders, joined his staff last summer. “I know my memory is weak but when we won one of our six Premier Leagues, these types of games help a lot,” Guardiola said. “It is three points, but it is a massive three points.”
